Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - June 18th
Day 63: Tuesday 18th June Badger Lake – Lyell Canyon
“Purboy” and “Billy Goat” both left early in the morning as they intended to do the
22 miles to Tuolumne, including the crossing of Donohue Pass, today. It was not a good
idea to camp in Lyell Canyon on the approach to Tuolumne since it was notorious for its
aggressive bears.
This section of the PCT was following a different route to the JMT. The JMT followed
a beautiful lower-level lake-studded route. It was, however, so popular that the PCT was
routed away from it to reduce the environmental pressure on the area. The PCT rejoined
the JMT at the spectacular Thousand Island Lake.
In the morning I was caught up by Tom and Katie. Tom, from Belgium, was going to
start a year as a GP Registrar in St. Ives, Cornwall, in August, so he wasn’t going to
have time to complete the route. He was walking with his girlfriend, Katie, from Quincy
in California. I was also passed by another thru-hiker, “Iron Man” Matt. “Jaybird”
caught up with me on the ascent of Donohue Pass. He had left his sister at Mammoth
Lakes and now resumed his high-speed hiking. There was only patchy snow, which was
melting rapidly, on the traverse of Donohue Pass. When I stopped for lunch on the
descent from Donohue Pass I had already been walking for 5 hours so it looked unlikely
that I would manage the 5 hours still needed to get to Tuolumne. I was resting in the
territory of a Marmot that was sniffing around my pack trying to find some food and
keeping an eye on a young Marmot, which was playing in the sun.
I met several heavily laden groups who had just set out from Tuolumne on the JMT.
Again it was noticeable how much gear they carried compared with the thru-hikers.
“Smokey” also passed me and we walked together for a bit. He was carrying a fishing
rod, but didn’t have any success when he stopped to fish in Lyell Canyon Creek. Some
girls were doing there best to make sure their camp was visited by bears that night as
they were cooking their dinner on an open fire right by their tents. I stopped for dinner
and then went on for another half-hour before camping well off the trail.
Two years ago, I was disturbed by a bear at 3am in the morning. The bear circled my
camp and easily got my rubbish bag, which was hanging in the trees. My food, in a
newer canoe dry bag, was sitting at the foot of a tree near to my tent and was missed by
the bear. This gave me confidence in the use of canoe dry bags for food storage on this
trip. On that trip I met a couple of groups who had lost food to bears in Lyell Canyon.
Day 63: 16.1 miles 8.44 hours Camp: Lyell Canyon
“Purboy” and “Billy Goat” both left early in the morning as they intended to do the
22 miles to Tuolumne, including the crossing of Donohue Pass, today. It was not a good
idea to camp in Lyell Canyon on the approach to Tuolumne since it was notorious for its
aggressive bears.
This section of the PCT was following a different route to the JMT. The JMT followed
a beautiful lower-level lake-studded route. It was, however, so popular that the PCT was
routed away from it to reduce the environmental pressure on the area. The PCT rejoined
the JMT at the spectacular Thousand Island Lake.
In the morning I was caught up by Tom and Katie. Tom, from Belgium, was going to
start a year as a GP Registrar in St. Ives, Cornwall, in August, so he wasn’t going to
have time to complete the route. He was walking with his girlfriend, Katie, from Quincy
in California. I was also passed by another thru-hiker, “Iron Man” Matt. “Jaybird”
caught up with me on the ascent of Donohue Pass. He had left his sister at Mammoth
Lakes and now resumed his high-speed hiking. There was only patchy snow, which was
melting rapidly, on the traverse of Donohue Pass. When I stopped for lunch on the
descent from Donohue Pass I had already been walking for 5 hours so it looked unlikely
that I would manage the 5 hours still needed to get to Tuolumne. I was resting in the
territory of a Marmot that was sniffing around my pack trying to find some food and
keeping an eye on a young Marmot, which was playing in the sun.
I met several heavily laden groups who had just set out from Tuolumne on the JMT.
Again it was noticeable how much gear they carried compared with the thru-hikers.
“Smokey” also passed me and we walked together for a bit. He was carrying a fishing
rod, but didn’t have any success when he stopped to fish in Lyell Canyon Creek. Some
girls were doing there best to make sure their camp was visited by bears that night as
they were cooking their dinner on an open fire right by their tents. I stopped for dinner
and then went on for another half-hour before camping well off the trail.
Two years ago, I was disturbed by a bear at 3am in the morning. The bear circled my
camp and easily got my rubbish bag, which was hanging in the trees. My food, in a
newer canoe dry bag, was sitting at the foot of a tree near to my tent and was missed by
the bear. This gave me confidence in the use of canoe dry bags for food storage on this
trip. On that trip I met a couple of groups who had lost food to bears in Lyell Canyon.
Day 63: 16.1 miles 8.44 hours Camp: Lyell Canyon
Tom and Katie
Badger Lake
Banner Peak across
Thousand Island Lake
Thousand Island Lake
Iron Man
Marmot
Lyell Canyon
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